Utility: Linux Admining

[tibbs]

Thanks for all the useful info. I want to avoid using Telnet because it doesn't encrypt but I will look into NetTerm and SSH.

And this will take me a long time to digest. I just learned about the touch command and I think I need to re-read it because I have forgotten.

And it looks like I need to learn how to create scripts. This should keep me busy over the weekend.

Thanks,
Chris

[Gandalf Parker]

Any commands you can type in to run can be put into a text file. If you make it executable (chmod +x file) then it becomes a script. You only have to iron out all of the steps one time. Then you put them into a script and forget all that trial and error you did.

The touch was a trick. It usually updates the creation date. But if the file doesnt exist then it makes one. That way you safely create a file but if one is already there then you wont destroy it.

[alexti]

I'd recommend PuTTY, especially if your client desktop is Windows.

[Arker]

Gandalf Parker said:
Any commands you can type in to run can be put into a text file. If you make it executable (chmod +x file) then it becomes a script.

It also helps to put the magic numbers in.

#!/bin/sh

should be the very first thing in the file.

And to make sure the permissions are right

chmod 755 file

[Gandalf Parker]

The script I did isnt shell specific. Some later ones I do have a shell line since they use special shell variables for things like randoms.

And yeah I guess for public info its probably best to chmod 755 but +x for executable seems easier for people to remember even if it is sloppy.

Of course for public info I probably shouldnt have mentioned telnet since trying to argue down ssh is something only security people would do.

So did everyone follow that script? No questions?

[tibbs]

I didn't get a chance to try it yet. I was busy with painting a few rooms in the house. Hopefully early this week.

[Bluebird]

Just as a hint: I am normally hosting games on unix using the 'screen' command. It is a like a 'window manager' for text consoles and has many features (too many to list them here). The nicest one is that you can 'detach' a terminal session which continues running even if you logout, and later 'reattach' to that terminal session on next login.

[Gandalf Parker]

PRE hosting script
------------------

GAME="Armageddon"
DIR="/home/dom3/dominions3/savedgames/"$GAME
WEB="/home/dom3/public_html/games/"$GAME

# make backups
#maybe later I will make it rotating backups
zip -9 $GAME.zip $DIR/*

# blank the log file since it grows by about 5 meg each turn
# this way Im only logging one turn at a time
cp /dev/null $DIR/$GAME.log

# update the viewable copies of the shell files
cp /home/dom3/dominions3/$GAME.sh $WEB/$GAME_sh.txt
cp $DIR/pre_$GAME.sh $WEB/pre_$GAME_sh.txt
cp post_$GAME.sh $WEB/post_$GAME_sh.txt

# mark the time and load at the beginning of hosting
echo pre >>$DIR/system_load.txt
uptime >>$DIR/system_load.txt